المجالس العاشورية في المآتم الحسينية

Then a banner will come to me whose faces gleam with light, and I will say to them: Who are you? They will say: We are the people of the word of monotheism and piety, from the nation of Muhammad the Chosen One. We are the remnant of the people of truth. We bore the Book of our Lord, deemed lawful what it made lawful and forbidden what it made forbidden. We loved the progeny of our Prophet Muhammad, and we aided them with all the very means by which we defended ourselves, and we fought alongside them against those who opposed them. So I will say to them: Rejoice, for I am your Prophet Muhammad, and you were indeed in the world just as you have said. Then I will give them to drink from my Pool, and they will depart quenched and rejoicing, and then they will enter Paradise, abiding therein for ever and ever.(1)

How excellent are the words of al-Sayyid al-Himyari, may mercy be upon him, when he says:

The Tenth Gathering
The Commander of the Faithful (peace be upon him) foretelling the slaying of al-Hussein (peace be upon him)
and the narrators reporting that
Sheikh al-Saduq, may mercy be upon him, narrated, on the authority of al-Asbagh ibn Nubata, who said: While the Commander of

the Faithful (peace be upon him) was addressing the people, he said: Ask me before you lose me, for by God you will not ask me about anything that has passed, nor about anything that is to come, but that I will inform you of it. So Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas rose up to him and said: O Commander of the Faithful! Tell me how many hairs are on my head and in my beard? He said to him: By God, you have asked me about a matter which my beloved, the Messenger of God (peace be upon him and his family), told me you would ask me about. There is not a hair on your head or in your beard but that at its root sits a devil. And truly in your house there is a young one who will kill my son al-Hussein. And on that day Umar ibn Sa'd was crawling before him.(1)

Sheikh al-Mufid, may mercy be upon him, narrated and said: It has come in the reports that the Commander of the Faithful (peace be upon him) was delivering a sermon, and he said in his sermon: Ask me before you lose me, for by God you will not ask me about any group that leads a hundred astray and guides a hundred but that I will inform you of the one who summons it and the one who drives it, until the Day of Resurrection. So a man rose up to him and said: Tell me how many strands of hair are on my head and in my beard? The Commander of the Faithful said: By God, my beloved the Messenger of God (peace be upon him and his family) told me of what you have asked. Upon every strand of hair on your head is an angel cursing you, and upon every strand of hair in your beard is a devil prodding you. And truly in your house there is a young one who will kill the son of the daughter of the Messenger of God (peace be upon him and his family). The sign of that is the confirmation of what I have told you. And were it not that what you asked about would be hard to prove, I would have informed you of it. But the sign of that is what I told you of your being cursed and of your accursed young one. And his son at that time was a small boy crawling.

So when the affair of al-Hussein came to pass as it did, his son took charge of killing him, just as the Commander of the Faithful (peace be upon him) had said.(2)

On the authority of Suwayd ibn Ghafala, who said: I was with the Commander of the Faithful (peace be upon him) when a man came to him and said: O Commander of the Faithful! I have come to you from Wadi al-Qura, and Khalid ibn Urfuta has died. The Commander of the Faithful said to him: He has not died. So the man repeated it to him, and Ali (peace be upon him) said to him: He has not died. By Him in whose hand is my

soul, he will not die. So the man repeated it to him a third time and said: Glory be to God! I tell you he has died, and you say he has not died? Ali (peace be upon him) said to him: He has not died. By Him in whose hand is my soul, he will not die until he leads an army of misguidance whose banner is borne by Habib ibn Jammaz.

He said: So Habib heard of that, and he came to the Commander of the Faithful and said to him: I implore you by God concerning myself, for I am a follower of yours, and you have mentioned me with a matter that, by God, I do not recognize in myself. Ali (peace be upon him) said to him: If you are Habib ibn Jammaz, you will surely bear it. So Habib turned away from him, and the Commander of the Faithful (peace be upon him) went on saying: If you are Habib ibn Jammaz, you will surely bear it.

Abu Hamza said: By God, he (that is, Khalid ibn Urfuta) did not die until Umar ibn Sa'd dispatched him against al-Hussein ibn Ali (peace be upon him), and placed Khalid ibn Urfuta in his vanguard, with Habib as his banner-bearer.(1)

On the authority of Abu Abdullah al-Jadali, who said: I came in to the Commander of the Faithful (peace be upon him) with al-Hussein at his side. He struck his hand upon the shoulder of al-Hussein, then said: Truly this one will be killed, and no one will aid him. I said: O Commander of the Faithful! By God, that life would be an evil one. He said: That is to come to pass.(2)

On the authority of Hani ibn Hani, from Ali (peace be upon him), who said: Al-Hussein will surely be slain outright, and indeed I know the soil of the earth upon which he will be killed, near the two rivers.

On the authority of Jabir, from Abu Abdullah (peace be upon him), who said: Ali said to al-Hussein: O Abu Abdullah, are you to be an example from of old? He said: May I be your ransom, what is my state? He said: You have known what they were ignorant of, and a knowing one will profit by what he knows. O my son, hear and see before it comes upon you. For by Him in whose hand is my soul, the Umayyads will surely shed your blood, then they will not turn you away from your religion, nor make you forget the remembrance of your Lord. So al-Hussein (peace be upon him) said:

By Him in whose hand is my soul, it suffices me, and I affirm what God has sent down, and I believe the Prophet of God, and I do not deny the word of my father.(1)

On the authority of Isma'il ibn Ziyad, who said: Ali (peace be upon him) said to al-Bara ibn Azib one day: O Bara! My son al-Hussein will be killed while you are alive, and you will not aid him. So when al-Hussein (peace be upon him) was killed, al-Bara ibn Azib used to say: Ali ibn Abi Talib spoke the truth, by God. Al-Hussein was killed and I did not aid him. Then he would show, regarding that, grief and remorse.(2)

Abdullah ibn Sharik al-Amiri narrated and said: I used to hear the companions of Ali, when Umar ibn Sa'd entered through the door of the mosque, say: This is the killer of al-Hussein. And that was a long time before he was killed.(3)

Salim ibn Abi Hafsa narrated and said: Umar ibn Sa'd said to al-Hussein (peace be upon him): O Abu Abdullah! Some foolish people have approached us claiming that I will kill you. Al-Hussein said to him: They are not foolish, but they are forbearing. Behold, it gladdens my eye that you will eat little of the wheat of Iraq after me.(4)

On the authority of al-Hasan ibn al-Hakam al-Nakha'i, from a man who said: I heard the Commander of the Faithful, may God's blessings be upon him, while he was in al-Rahba reciting this verse: "And neither the heaven nor the earth wept over them, nor were they granted respite"(5), and al-Hussein (peace be upon him) came out to him from one of the doors of the mosque, so he said: Behold, this one will be killed, and the heaven and the earth will weep over him.

On the authority of Ibrahim al-Nakha'i, who said: The Commander of the Faithful, may God's blessings be upon him, came out and sat in the mosque, and his companions gathered around him, and al-Hussein (peace be upon him) came and stood before him, so he placed

his hand upon his head and said: O my son! God reproached certain peoples in the Qur'an and said: "And neither the heaven nor the earth wept over them, nor were they granted respite." And by God, they will surely kill you, then the heaven and the earth will weep for you.(1)

And he (peace be upon him) foretold that also, as it is narrated of him that when death came upon him, he said to the two Hasans (peace be upon them both): O Abu Muhammad! And O Abu Abdullah! It is as though I behold the two of you after I am gone, with the trials having come forth upon you from here. So be patient until God judges, and He is the best of judges. Then he said: O Abu Abdullah! You are the martyr of this nation, so cling to the fear of God and patience in the face of His trial.(2)

Ibn al-Athir said in the biography of Gharafa al-Azdi: He was among the companions of the Prophet (peace be upon him and his family), and among the People of the Bench, and he was the one for whom the Prophet (peace be upon him and his family) prayed that he be blessed in his transaction. Gharafa al-Azdi said: A doubt crept into me concerning the affair of Ali (peace be upon him), so I went out with him along the bank of the Euphrates. He turned off the road and stopped, and we stopped around him, and he (peace be upon him) said, gesturing with his hand: This is the place of their mounts, the resting-place of their riding-beasts, and the spilling-ground of their blood. By my father, those who will have no helper on earth or in heaven save God. So when al-Hussein (peace be upon him) was killed, I went out until I came to the place where they were killed, and behold, it was just as he (peace be upon him) had said—he had not erred in anything. He said: So I sought God's forgiveness for the doubt that had been in me, and I knew that Ali (peace be upon him) advanced nothing except by what had been entrusted to him concerning it.(3)

On the authority of Salim ibn Abi al-Ja'da, who said: I heard Ka'b al-Ahbar saying: In our scripture it is recorded that a man from the descendants of Muhammad, the Messenger of God (peace be upon him and his family), will be killed, and the sweat upon the mounts of his companions will not dry before they enter Paradise and embrace the houris with their wide, lovely eyes. Then al-Hasan (peace be upon him) passed by us, and we said: Is it this one? He said: No. Then al-Hussein (peace be upon him) passed by us, and we said: Is it this one? He said: Yes.

On the authority of a leader of the Banu Sulaym, from their elders, who said: We raided the lands of the Romans, and we entered one of their churches, and we found written in it:

They said: So we asked: How long has this been in your church? They said: Three hundred years before your Prophet was sent.

And Sheikh Ja'far ibn Nama said in Muthir al-Ahzan: On the authority of Sulayman al-A'mash, who said: While I was performing the circumambulation during the season of pilgrimage, behold, a man was saying: O God, forgive me, though I know You will not forgive. So I asked him the reason, and he said: I was one of the forty who carried the head of al-Hussein to Yazid along the road to Syria. We halted at the first stage of our journey from Karbala, at a monastery of the Christians, with the head fixed upon a spear. We set out food and were eating, when behold, a hand upon the wall of the monastery was writing a line in blood with an iron pen:

So we were stricken with intense terror, and one of us reached toward the hand to seize it, but it vanished. Then my companions returned.

And Abd al-Rahman ibn Muslim related, on the authority of his father, that he said: We raided the lands of the Romans, and we came to one of their churches near Constantinople, upon which something was written. So we asked some people of Syria who could read in Greek, and behold, this verse was written upon it.

And Abu Amr al-Zahid mentioned in the Book of al-Yaqut, saying: Abdullah ibn al-Saffar, the companion of Abu Hamza al-Sufi, said: We went on a raid and took captives, and among them was an elder of the wise men of the Christians. We honored him and treated him well, and he said to us: My father told me, on the authority of his forefathers, that they dug an excavation in the lands of the Romans three hundred years before Muhammad the Arab was sent, and they came upon a stone on which was written, in the Musnad script, this verse:

Ibn Shahr Ashub, may mercy be upon him, said: Anas ibn Malik said: A man of the people of Najran dug a pit and found in it a tablet of gold on which was written this verse, and after it:

So we asked them: How long has this been in your church? They said: Three hundred years before your Prophet was sent.

And Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas said: Quss ibn Sa'ida al-Iyadi said, before the sending of the Prophet (peace be upon him and his family):

And how excellent are the words of the eminent scholar Sheikh Husayn al-Biladi al-Qadihi, may mercy be upon him, when he says:

The Eleventh Gathering
Some of the Miracles of Imam al-Hussein (peace be upon him)
Among the miracles and marvels of the Master of Martyrs, Abu Abdullah al-Hussein (peace be upon him), is what came in al-Kibrit al-Ahmar, which states: Al-Hussein (peace be upon him) set out from Medina intending to visit the Sacred House of God, and with him was a great multitude and a vast throng. A man of the caravan fell ill and said to al-Hussein: I crave pomegranates. He (peace be upon him) said: Here is a garden in which are various kinds of fruit, so go to it and take what you wish. And no one had ever before known of trees, fruits, or waters there. When the caravan beheld the garden, they entered and took whatever they craved, and when they came out, the garden vanished from their sight. And behold, they saw a doe, and al-Hussein (peace be upon him) gestured to it, and it came forward. Then he commanded them that one of them slaughter it without breaking any of its bones, until they had eaten its flesh. Then he (peace be upon him) prayed, and it returned to what it had been. So he (peace be upon him) said: Whichever of you craves to drink of its milk, let him milk it—until all of them drank of its milk, and it sufficed the whole caravan, by the blessing of al-Hussein (peace be upon him) and his prayer. Then he (peace be upon him) said to it: You have fawns awaiting you, so go and suckle them. And it departed.(2)

And Muhammad al-Kinani related, on the authority of Abu Abdullah (peace be upon him), who said: Al-Hussein ibn Ali (peace be upon them both)(3) went out on one of his journeys, and with him was a man from the descendants of al-Zubayr ibn al-Awwam who professed his imamate.

They halted on their way at a camping-place beneath a palm tree withered from drought. A place was spread out for al-Hussein beneath it, and facing him was a palm tree with no dates upon it. He said: So he raised his hand and prayed with words I did not understand, and the palm tree turned green, returned to its former state, and bore dates. So the camel-driver from whom he had hired said: This, by God, is sorcery. Al-Hussein (peace be upon him) said: Woe to you—it is not sorcery, but the answered prayer of the son of a Prophet. Then they climbed the palm tree and gathered from it enough to suffice all of them.(1)

And one of the companions related in a book of his named al-Tuhfa fi al-Kalam, saying: Abdullah ibn Abbas narrated and said: I was sitting with al-Hussein (peace be upon him) when a Bedouin came to him and said: My camel has strayed, and I have no other, and you are the son of the Messenger of God—guide me to it. He (peace be upon him) said: Go to such-and-such a place, for it is there, and facing it is a lion. So he went to that place and found it just as he (peace be upon him) had said.

And al-Sayyid Wali ibn Ni'mat Allah al-Radawi related in the book (Majma' al-Bahrayn fi Manaqib al-Sibtayn (peace be upon them both)), quoting from the Book of al-Bahja, on the authority of Ibn Abbas: that a Bedouin said to al-Hussein (peace be upon him): O son of the Messenger of God! I have lost my she-camel, and I had no other, and your father used to guide to the strayed beast and restore the lost to its owner. So al-Hussein (peace be upon him) said to him: Go to such-and-such a place; you will find your she-camel standing, and facing it a black wolf. He said: So the Bedouin headed to the place, then returned and said to al-Hussein (peace be upon him): O son of the Messenger of God, I found my she-camel in such-and-such a place.(2)

And al-Hasan al-Basri and Umm Salama related: that al-Hasan and al-Hussein (peace be upon them both) came in to the Messenger of God (peace be upon him and his family) while before him was Gabriel, and they began circling about him, likening him to Dihya al-Kalbi. So Gabriel began gesturing with his hand as though reaching for something, and behold, in his hand was an apple, a quince, and a pomegranate. He gave them to the two, and their faces lit up, and they hastened to their grandfather. He took from them and smelled them, then said: Go to

your mother with what you have, and begin with your father. So they did as he commanded them, and they did not eat until the Prophet (peace be upon him and his family) came to them, and they all ate together. And it continued such that, every time something was eaten of it, it returned to what it had been, until the Messenger of God (peace be upon him and his family) was taken.

Al-Hussein (peace be upon him) said: It was not affected by alteration or diminishment during the days of Fatima, daughter of the Messenger of God, until she passed away. When she passed away, we lost the pomegranate, and the apple and the quince remained during the days of my father. When the Commander of the Faithful was martyred, the quince was lost, and the apple remained in its state with al-Hasan until he died from his poisoning. And the apple remained until the time when we were besieged and cut off from water, and I would smell it when I grew thirsty, and the flame of my thirst would subside. But when the thirst grew severe upon me, I bit into it, and I knew for certain of my own passing.

Ali ibn al-Hussein (peace be upon them both) said: I heard him say that an hour before his slaying. And when he had breathed his last, its fragrance was found at the place where he fell. It was sought, but no trace of it could be seen, and its fragrance remained, wafting from his grave. So whoever among our followers, the visitors of the grave, desires that, let him seek it in the hours before dawn, for he will find it if he is sincere.(1)

And the proof of God, Sheikh Faraj al-Imran, may mercy be upon him, said concerning this meaning:

The Twelfth Gathering
The Merit of the Husayni Soil
It came in al-Amali by Sheikh al-Saduq, may mercy be upon him, on the authority of Muhammad ibn Muslim, who said: I heard Abu Ja'far and Ja'far ibn Muhammad (peace be upon them both) say: Truly God Almighty compensated al-Hussein (peace be upon him) for his slaying by placing the imamate among his progeny, healing in his soil, and the answering of prayer at his grave; and the days of those who visit him, both going and returning, are not counted (against their lifespan). Muhammad ibn Muslim said: So I said to Abu Abdullah (peace be upon him): These qualities are attained through al-Hussein (peace be upon him), so what is there for him in himself? He said: Truly God Almighty joined him to the Prophet (peace be upon him and his family), so he was with him in his rank and his station. Then Abu Abdullah (peace be upon him) recited: "And those who believed and whose progeny followed them in faith—We joined their progeny to them"—the verse.(2)(3)

And Ibn Quluwayh, may mercy be upon him, related on the authority of Muhammad ibn Muslim, who said: I went out to Medina while I was ill. So it was said to him: Muhammad ibn Muslim is ill. And Abu Ja'far (peace be upon him) sent me a drink with a servant boy, covered with a cloth. The boy handed it to me and said to me: Drink it, for he commanded me not to leave until you drink it. So I took it, and behold, the scent of musk was from it, and it was a drink pleasant in taste and cool.

When I drank it, the boy said to me: My master says to you: When you have drunk, come. So I pondered over what he had said to me, while I was unable to rise upon my feet before that. But when the drink settled in my belly,

it was as though I had been freed from a tether. So I came to his door and sought permission to enter, and he called out to me: The body is sound—enter, enter! So I came in to him while weeping, and I greeted him, and kissed his hand and his head.

He (peace be upon him) said to me: What makes you weep, O Muhammad? I said: May I be your ransom, I weep over my being a stranger far away, the great distance, and my little ability to remain near you and to gaze upon you. He said to me: As for the little ability—thus has God made our allies and the people of our love, and He has made trials come swiftly to them. As for what you mentioned of being a stranger, truly the believer in this world is a stranger, amid this perverse creation, until he departs from this abode to the mercy of God. And as for what you mentioned of the great distance, you have in Abu Abdullah (peace be upon him) an example, in a land far from us by the Euphrates. And as for what you mentioned of your love of being near us and gazing upon us, and that you are unable to do so—God knows what is in your heart, and your reward for it is with Him.

Then he (peace be upon him) said to me: Do you visit the grave of al-Hussein? I said: Yes, in fear and dread. He said: Whatever is more severe in this, the reward in it is according to the fear. So whoever fears in coming to it, God will secure his terror on the Day when people stand before the Lord of the Worlds, and he will depart with forgiveness. The angels greet him, the Prophet (peace be upon him and his family) visits him and prays for him, and he turns back with a blessing from God and a bounty—no evil touched them, and they followed the good pleasure of God.

Then he (peace be upon him) said to me: How did you find the drink? I said: I bear witness that you are the household of mercy, and that you are the legatee of the legatees. The boy brought me what you had sent while I was unable to support myself upon my feet, and I had despaired of my own life. So he handed me the drink and I drank it, and I found nothing like its scent, nor more pleasant than its savor and taste, nor cooler than it. When I drank it, the boy said to me: He commanded me to say to you: When you have drunk it, come to me. And you know the severity of my condition. So I said: I shall surely go to him even if my life should depart, and I came to you as though I had been freed from a tether. So praise be to God who made you a mercy for your followers.

He (peace be upon him) said: O Muhammad! The drink you drank contains some of the soil of the graves of my fathers, and it is

the most excellent thing by which healing is sought, so do not turn from it to anything else, for we give it to drink to our children and our women, and we see every good in it. So I said to him: May I be your ransom, may we take some of it and seek healing by it?

He said: A man takes it and carries it out from the enclosure (al-Hair) having exposed it, and then it passes by no jinn afflicted with a malady, nor a beast, nor anything bearing a blight, but that it sniffs it, and so its blessing departs, and its blessing becomes for another. But this with which we treat ourselves is not so; and were it not for what I have told you, nothing would be wiped with it, nor any of it drunk, but that the one would recover at that very hour. It is nothing but like the Black Stone—the people of maladies, unbelief, and the days of ignorance came to it, and no one wiped himself with it but that he recovered. He said: And it was like a white ruby, then it blackened until it came to what you see.

I said: May I be your ransom, how should I deal with it? He said: You, with your exposing of it, deal with it as others do. You treat it lightly, casting it into your saddlebag and among soiled things, so that what is in it of what you intend by it departs. So I said: You have spoken truly, may I be your ransom.

He (peace be upon him) said: No one takes it but that he is ignorant of how to take it, and it can scarcely remain safe among people. So I said: May I be your ransom, how can I take it as you take it? He said to me: Shall I give you some of it? I said: Yes. He said: When you take it, how will you deal with it? I said: I will carry it with me. He said: In what will you place it? I said: In my garments. He said: Then you have returned to what you used to do. Drink of it here, as much as you need, and do not carry it, for it will not remain safe with you. So he gave me of it to drink twice, and I do not know that I found anything of what I had been suffering until I departed.(1)

And it is related, on the authority of Muhammad ibn Isa, from a man who said: Abu al-Hasan al-Rida (peace be upon him) sent me from Khurasan bundles of garments, and among them was some soil. So I said to the messenger: What is this? He said: This is the soil of the grave of al-Hussein (peace be upon him). He scarcely sends anything of the garments or other things but that he places the soil in it, and he used to say: It is a safeguard, by the leave of God.

And it is related, on the authority of al-Husayn ibn Abi al-Ala, who said: I heard Abu Abdullah (peace be upon him) say: Rub the palates of your children with the soil of al-Hussein, for it is a safeguard.(1)

And on the authority of Abu Amr, an elder from the people of Kufa, from al-Thumali, from Abu Abdullah (peace be upon him), who said: I was in Mecca—and he mentioned in his account—I said: May I be your ransom, I have seen our companions taking from the soil of the grave of al-Hussein and seeking healing by it; is there anything in what they say of the healing? He said: He said: Healing is sought by what is between him and the grave, within a radius of four miles. And likewise the soil of the grave of my grandfather, the Messenger of God (peace be upon him and his family), and likewise the soil of the graves of al-Hasan, Ali, and Muhammad (peace be upon them). So take of it, for it is a healing from every sickness, and a shield from what you fear, and nothing of the things by which healing is sought equals it except prayer. Indeed, what spoils it is what mixes with it from its vessels and the little certainty of the one who treats himself with it. But whoever is certain that it is a healing for him when he treats himself with it, it will suffice him, by the leave of God, in place of any other thing by which one treats oneself. And the devils and the unbelieving jinn among them spoil it; they wipe themselves with it, and it passes by nothing but that they sniff it, so that most of its goodness departs. And as for the devils and the unbelieving jinn, they envy the son of Adam over it, so they wipe themselves with it, and most of its goodness goes away. And the soil does not leave the enclosure but that there have made ready for it countless numbers of them. By God, it is in the very hands of its owner while they are wiping themselves with it, yet they are unable, on account of the angels, to enter the enclosure. And were it that anything of the soil remained safe, no one would treat himself with it but that he would be cured at that very hour.

So when you take it, conceal it, and make abundant over it the remembrance of God, mighty and majestic. It has reached me that some of those who take something of the soil treat it lightly, so that some of them cast it into the feed-bag of camels, mules, and donkeys, or into the food vessel, or upon what one wipes the hands with from food, or the saddlebag and the sack. So how can one whose condition with it is like this seek healing by it? But the heart in which there is no certainty—belonging to the one who treats lightly that in which lies his own benefit—spoils his work for him.(2)

And it is related, on the authority of Abu Bakkar, who said: I took from the soil that is at the head of al-Hussein ibn Ali (peace be upon him) some red earth, and I came in to al-Rida (peace be upon him) and presented it to him. He took it in his palm, then smelled it, then wept until his tears flowed, then said: This is the soil of my grandfather.

And it is related, on the authority of Jabir al-Ju'fi, who said: I heard Abu Ja'far (peace be upon him) say: The soil of the grave of al-Hussein (peace be upon him) is a healing from every malady, and a safeguard from every fear, and it is for whatever it is taken for.(1)

And it is related, on the authority of one of the companions of Abu al-Hasan Musa (peace be upon him), who said: I came in to him, and he said: Our followers are not free from need of four things: a prayer-mat upon which to pray, a ring with which to seal, a tooth-stick with which to clean the teeth, and a rosary of the soil of the grave of Abu Abdullah al-Hussein (peace be upon him), with thirty-three beads in it. Whenever one turns them while remembering God, there is recorded for him for each bead forty good deeds; and when one turns them heedlessly, toying with them, God records for him twenty good deeds.

And on the authority of Muhammad al-Himyari, who said: I wrote to the Jurist asking him: Is it permissible for a man to perform tasbih with the soil of the grave? And is there merit in it? So he answered, and I read the rescript, and from it I copied: Perform tasbih with it, for there is no kind of tasbih more excellent than it. And among its merits is that the one performing tasbih may forget the tasbih while turning the rosary, and yet that tasbih is recorded for him.

He said: And I wrote to him asking about the soil of the grave being placed with the deceased in his grave—is that permissible or not? So he answered, and I read the rescript, and from it I copied: It is placed with the deceased in his grave, and mixed with his embalming camphor, God willing.(2)

And the author of al-Mazar al-Kabir related, by his chain, on the authority of Ibrahim ibn Muhammad al-Thaqafi, from his father, from al-Sadiq Ja'far ibn Muhammad (peace be upon them both), who said: Truly the rosary of Fatima, daughter of the Messenger of God (peace be upon him and his family), was of a thread of twisted wool, knotted upon it the number of the takbirs, and she (peace be upon her) used to turn it